FL Solar Choice Petition Collecting Event

posted by Cecelia Zucconi | 71pc

We will meet at the Riverside Starbucks to pick up forms, have a brief training on the best way to collect petitions and answer questions, and then we will go out into the community to collect solar petitions. Please come!

ABOUT THE PETITION:

WHAT: This measure – to be placed on the 2016 ballot - removes barriers that block Florida families and businesses from harnessing clean, renewable solar power. It expands choice in solar power providers, offering customers more choice and freedom in selecting solar power and who provides it to them. HOW: Amends the Florida Constitution to allow the sale of solar-generated electricity to Florida families and businesses by persons other than monopoly power companies and government-owned utilities. WHY: Florida has the greatest potential for solar energy of any state east of the Mississippi. Yet the Sunshine State lags in solar power development. It has 9 million electric utility customers, yet a paltry 6,000 customer-sited solar systems – dwarfed by less sunny states like New Jersey which has over 30,000 customer-sited solar systems but only half the population of Florida. Why aren’t Florida families and businesses harnessing the benefits of clean, renewable solar power? For one thing, Florida is one of only five states in the United States that by law expressly denies citizens and businesses the freedom to buy solar power electricity directly from someone other than a monopoly electric utility, or a local electric utility. Having the choice to buy solar power from someone other than your current electricity company has been the major driver of solar development in other states. Florida law also denies property owners the right to sell power to tenants, or to a neighbor with a common boundary line. That means that a landlord can’t offer solar generated electricity to families that rent their home, nor can a shopping center owner offer solar-generated electricity to their tenants. These laws restrict solar choice for a large portion of Florida’s families and businesses. Big power companies such as Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light profit by maintaining their monopoly on the state’s energy market. Florida’s solar market is held back by these monopoly utilities that do everything in their vast power to stomp out potential competition and deny Floridians their right to choose their energy sources. In a recent poll, 74% of Florida voters said they support a proposal to change the state’s current law and allow Floridians to contract directly with solar power providers for their electricity. Removing barriers to solar choice will allow more Floridians to take advantage of the power of the sun.